Electricity/Gas Utilities

As parts of the U.S. face potential electricity shortages this year, power grid operators around the country are moving to keep old coal- and gas-fired power plants running longer and harder.The extra mileage being put on these power-plant versions of old clunkers, some of which were set for retirement, has raised concerns that some could break down when needed most. It has also led to complaints from power plant owners that they should be paid more to ensure that the aging facilities are properly staffed and maintained…

TARANTO, Italy—Chinese wind-turbine makers have grown big on the back of their rapidly growing home market. Now they want to expand abroad, putting further pressure on Western wind-turbine makers, which have been struggling to profit from a renewable-energy boom.The ambitions are visible near this coastal city on the heel of the Italian boot, where Renexia SpA, the renewable-energy arm of Italian infrastructure company Toto Holding SpA, recently inaugurated Beleolico, a 30-megawatt offshore wind farm using…

TOKYO— SoftBank Group Corp. 9984 10.64% , one of the world’s most aggressive high-tech investors, said Thursday it lost more money in its last fiscal year than it ever has—$13.2 billion—and will cut back its pace of new investments.“The world is in a chaotic situation,” said Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, citing Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “In this chaotic world, the approach we at SoftBank should take is defense.” The rough…

Efforts to shift the U.S. electrical grid off fossil fuels have major obstacles to overcome to meet the Biden administration’s decarbonization targets, let alone some companies’ more ambitious goals, executives said at an industry event this week. “If we have to decarbonize the entire economy by 2050, electricity has to go a hell of a lot faster,” said Miranda Ballentine, chief executive of the Clean Energy Buyers Association, during a panel discussion at a climate-change conference hosted by the nonprofit Aspen…

California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees a large regional grid spanning much of the Midwest, said late last month that capacity shortages may force it to take emergency measures to meet summer demand and flagged the risk of outages. In Texas, where a number of power plants lately went…

When you think of solar energy, you probably picture the photovoltaic panels that capture sunlight to be converted to electricity. But there are other ways to harness the sun’s power. One method attracting growing interest is called concentrated solar-thermal power, or CSP, which uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate the sun’s energy. CSP has been held back by technical challenges and a shortage of funding and government incentives compared with other sources of renewable energy. But as the sense of urgency about…